The Bank

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The Bank

I was an employee of Bank of America for about seven months. This is the account of that portion of my life.

I was hired in the middle of the summer of '98. I finally got a job as a bank teller after having talked about it for a long while. I was actually quite proud of myself for getting the job. It was something that I'd wanted to do for a long time. I viewed a job as a bank teller as a step up from ice cream, and a step\ towards something more professional, seeing as I was a college student, with just one year left until graduation. Plus, I wanted a higher income, and the bank promised to pay more per hour than I'd ever made. So, I asked at different banks, spoke with some people I knew, and it was Bank of America that hired me. I went to orientation, and then training. Those hot summer days were enjoyable, and I'll remember them for a long time to come. I met some people that I felt that I could become friends with. Life was good. I was placed at the Plaza Branch, on SW 1st and Jefferson. It was a physically large branch, but small when it came to business volume. I quickly settled in and got to know my coworkers quite well. This was my first taste of a well organized business, and I liked it a lot. I worked a fair number of hours during the summer, and the first part of school, but then I was scaled back to about 12 hours a week. I'd made some good money during that time, and again, life was good. The bank likes their tellers to sell, though they never really called it selling, but instead referring. It was selling. There was, or is, a whole list of things that each teller should do for each client. It is the Bank of America G.U.E.S.T. acronym.

Greet each customer with a smile
Use their name
Establish eye contact
Sell/suggest with a tag-on
Thank them

I quickly tired of the point game, and expectations of selling B of A Visa's and checking accounts and whatnot. But that soon all changed. Our branch got word, shortly after the merger with NationsBank, that we were being closed. The date was March 26th, 1999. From the day that the district manager Rocky sat us all down and told us, the selling stopped, and the atmosphere in the branch was much different. I hardly thought that the day would ever come, but it eventually did, and when it finally arrived, I, and the branch, were prepared for the surreal event of a branch of the bank closing down, permanently. When the bank did close, I was out of a job. My career with Bank of America ended on that friday night, at 7:00pm. I'm not sad, rather I'm glad that I had the entire experience as part of my life. And I did get some cool momentos and memories. So, here are some pictures.

I'll refine this in the future, once more time is put into it, I just wanted to get some of the basics down now. Come back and check it out! As a bit of an epologue, I received a check from Bank of America on May 15th, 1999. It was for $150.00, of which I got $83.03 after taxes. This came several months after I no longer worked for the bank. What it was was branch retention money. We made our goal of keeping 98% of of clients when the branch was closing, and would you believe it, the bank came through with the money. Hey, I'm loving this "windfall"!

Defunct card